The CTO and/or Systems Architect would be fired if this happened in the "real world" outside of game development.

There really is no excuse for not sufficiently load testing an application prior to launch and building in decent database scaling.

If these corners were knowingly cut to minimise costs prior to launch then fair enough, you took a gamble and it didn't pan out as you expected.

However, if the tech staff didn't alert management beforehand of these potential scalability issues prior to launch then 22 Cans really needs to recruit people that better understand these things. Reply+10

How can I tell what the game is trying to be? It's easy, I read the "list of things we hope to include" and draw my own conclusions.

The key to completing development of anything is minimising the scope. The feature set of 268 is a rambling list of "nice to have" ideas. They will all take a significant amount of development effort and cold hard cash to pull off even with procedurally generated content.

The odds of all of these disparate features coming together on time and on/under budget in a well honed perfectly balanced gaming experience are slim to none - in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong here, as a public relations news release this is fantastic. It pushes all the right buttons to whet the audience's appetite and loosen their purse strings for when they start asking for cash for early access. They're selling the dream, not the reality. Letting their audience's imagination run riot for what the future might hold.

The reality is far more likely to be much less spectacular. With vapourware ( ie. "list of things we hope to include" ) features cut back or watered down to be mere tokens of what they were supposed to represent.

I don't have any sources to post, these are my opinions, not those of anyone else. I'm old and cynical enough to understand the ins and outs of marketing and how the product life cycle is managed from concept to production. Your mileage may vary and all that.

For what it's worth, I haven't invested or backed the FTL game kickstarter. It's just a similar type of game (space, open ended, procedural, roguelike) that I think looks interesting from what has been shown so far. Reply-5

it might be breaking new ground but... i don't care. the technology maybe there if you like Eliza-like intelligence (cough) but to me it doesn't look like any fun, it looks like work.

the best demonstration they could devise was a "babysit a stroppy 12 year old that needs to be spoken to like he's a retard" simulator?

it's technology for technology's sake. it looks like they found the solution to a problem that no one is interested in.

show me how this would be used to create/enhance an AAA title and i'll be interested. but at the moment i'd avoid games with this technology like the plague, it's just a gimmick and not a fun one at that. Reply0

it was clear to me back then that the industry would split into cheap and cheerful casual titles and mega budget blockbusters.

it was obvious there would be no middle ground.

for the smaller devs, the choice was simple, get out or starting turning out casual stuff.

smaller developers don't have the time or resources to compete with the mega budget block busters. so they have to gamble that their own technology and brands can remain huge sellers when compared to the block buster titles with mega budgets.

with the smaller developers being highly dependent on publisher's milestone payments (without the luxury of large royalty checks rolling in from past titles) they are at the mercy of their publisher and pretty much living a hand to mouth existence.

if the publisher turns sour on them for whatever reason, the industry is so risk adverse that it would be impossible to find replacement project in the time before the next round of bills and wages arrive. it can easily take 6 months or more just to negotiate contracts even with a working prototype demo to show to puiblishers. if the developer has decently skilled staff, they're probably easily on 30k-40k/year per person, those outgoings can and do mount up very quickly.

so for smaller developers with just one title in development, they really are walking on a high wire with no safety net. one foot wrong and it's all over for good.

i wish the ex-staff of free radical all the best in their current and future endeavours. Reply0

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